Day 368 · Year 2 · Life with God
Jesus wept
The shortest verse in the Bible is also one of the most pastoral.
Today's passage
John 11:32-36
32When Mary came to Jesus and saw Him, she fell at His feet and said, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.
34“Where have you put him?” He asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they answered.
35Jesus wept.
36Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!”
Berean Standard Bible · public domain
Reflection
Jesus is about to raise Lazarus. He knows the ending. He still weeps. Christianity does not minimize grief in the name of hope. It holds them together. If you have been told you should be 'further along by now,' notice that Jesus did not rush past sorrow even when he held the resurrection in his pocket. You are allowed to weep. The Lord of life weeps with you. And the same voice that wept will, in his time, call out names from graves.
From the great tradition · paraphrased
C. S. Lewis · Modern · 20th c. · England
C. S. Lewis, after his wife's death, wrote with searing honesty that grief and faith are not enemies — that the believer is allowed to ache and ask, and that God does not flinch from either.
Paraphrase only. Scripture, not any teacher, is the authority.
Think it through
- What does Jesus do in verses 33 and 35, and what does it show about him?
- What does it mean that grief and resurrection hope can coexist?
- What grief have you been told to 'get over' that Jesus would actually sit with?
A prayer to pray
Tell Jesus what you have lost. Let him weep with you. Ask him to be near in the way verse 35 promises he can be.